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Masterbuilt 1050
The pellet grill craze has taken over backyard barbecue. Traeger, Pit Boss, Green Mountain Grills, Z Grills, even Weber got into the pellet game with the SmokeFire. However, Masterbuilt decided to take the idea of the pellet grill but incorporate charcoal rather than wood pellets.
Combining the flavor of charcoal with the ease of use of a pellet grill is brilliant. So what is the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1050? Can you put a griddle on it? What sort of accessories are there for it? Are there recommended modifications to improve performance? How much meat can you put on it at a time? Most of all, is it worth adding to your collection of grills?
What is a Masterbuilt 1050?
The Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1050 is a charcoal smoker that combines the control of a pellet grill with the flavor and smell of charcoal cooking. It has a digital controller and a fan that circulates the smoke and heat much like a pellet grill.
However, it uses charcoal as its fuel source, and rather than an auger driving the fuel source into the heat source, the Masterbuilt 1050 relies on gravity to feed the charcoal into the heat source.
It can use either lump charcoal or briquettes, depending on your preference. It has the ability to smoke low and slow for delivering great barbecue or reaching 700 degrees Fahrenheit to sear steaks.
Masterbuilt 1050 Accessories
Masterbuilt has a number of accessories for the Gravity Series 1050, including a smoking accessory kit and a rotisserie kit.
The Smoking Accessory Kit includes insulated gloves to help keep your hands from burning up while handling food and tools, a chicken stand that is perfect for beer can chicken, a rib rack that holds four racks of ribs at a time to help increase the number of ribs the smoker can hold, and a sausage hanger that mounts to the top smoking rack to hang sausage down for the best smoking experience.
The rotisserie kit turns the Masterbuilt 1050 into a rotisserie pit that can hold up to 20 pounds of meat. The rotating spit helps your chicken, rib roast, or whatever you decide to put on it cook evenly, and the juices will continually baste the meat as it cooks.
Masterbuilt 1050 Mods
People are always looking to improve on mass-made products, and the Masterbuilt 1050 is no exception, with companies producing mods to improve the hopper, the firebox, even the cooking grates.
KlotesMods has a hopper liner that makes cleaning the hopper easier. LSS-Mods has a custom-sized water pan designed to snugly fit into the cooking chamber to keep moisture in the air.
Masterbuilt 1050 Grate Size
Between the grates and warming/smoking rack, the Masterbuilt 1050 has a total of 1050 square inches for cooking. According to Masterbuilt, the 1050 has enough room to smoke seven racks of ribs at the same time.
If you are firing it up for a backyard cookout, you can throw 45 burgers on at once as well. The Masterbuilt 1050 is perfect for any amount of food you want to cook. If you want to smoke plenty of meat to have pulled pork or chicken in your freezer for easy meals throughout the week, this smoker can handle it.
If you want to have a big summer bash, you can throw down plenty of ribs, brisket, chicken, or simple hot dogs and burgers for a crowd.
Is the Masterbuilt 1050 worth it?
If you are looking to cook a lot of meat often and want the flavor and smell of charcoal, the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 1050 fits the bill.
It has a great temperature range that exceeds the high temperatures on most pellet grills, so you can get steaks to sear at temperatures up to 700 degrees while still being able to handle smoking low and slow for brisket, ribs, or pulled pork.
The size of the smoker is geared towards feeding large amounts of people or having meals prepared in advance. Masterbuilt does have smaller options in the Gravity Series as well if you are looking for something a bit smaller but still offers the great options of the 1050.
Final Thoughts
Masterbuilt took the pellet grill concept of precise temperature control and WiFi capability and applied it to charcoal.
There are people out there that will say that pellet grills just do not have the same wood flavor as an offset smoker. Whether that is true or not, the Gravity Series 1050 does not skimp on the charcoal flavor.
If you love the smell and flavor of meat over charcoal but want the convenience of pellet grills, Masterbuilt put out a product suited for that. Whether you are smoking or searing, the Gravity Series 1050 can handle whatever you want.
Robert is a certified Pitmaster, with over a decade of experience in smoking the best meats you’ll ever feast upon. He also has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio. When he’s not researching technical topics, he’s most likely barbecuing in his backyard.